Captain Robert R. Brewer - - - - I.O.
1LT James Wolfe - - - - - - Asst I.O.
SP5 Roger E. Hester - - - - -  Editor
PFC John F. Hosier - - - - - Reporter

  The Ho Chi Minh Trail has long been a source of trouble for South Vietnamese and American Military Forces. It has served as the lifeline in the Communist war effort; almost all of the war materials and man power of the enemy are filtered down this trail. The first transports began in 1959. When Communist leaders decided to strengthen and support the guerilla war in South Vietnam, the first Communist combat units-- Viet Minh veterans, who had fled the South to North Vietnam after 1954, started returning. These groups soon became the core of the Viet Cong Army.
  After completing their training in the north, the enemy soldiers begin the long trip to the South. They usually travel along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in small groups of 50-60 men.
  There are two main routes that they use to cross the 17th Parallel: one was down the South China Sea by fishing boats, junks and freighters, the other was through the mountainous jungles of eastern Laos on foot, elephant and bicycle. It wasn't long before the Communist Leaders realized the strategical importances of the Ho Chi Minh Trail and began to set up an intricate network of roads and minor trails.
  The main trunk of the trail begins at the Chinese border and extends 750 miles to the provinces in South Vietnam. It runs through dense forests, rice paddies, palm groves, straw covered huts and golden pagodas. The jungles are almost impenetrable primeval forests; the mountains, steep and rocky.
  The Ho Chi Minh Trail is made up of hundreds of smaller feeding trails that tie in with the main route. At some points it is barely six feet wide at others it is wide enough to accomadate heavy vehicles and large troop formations.

  Scores of thousands of Vietnamese peasants are being forced to maintain the trail. They often have to work feverishly at night to move millions of cubic feet of earth. At one point a bridge was discovered submerged a few inches below the waters surface just enough so that it was impossibe to see it from the air.
  The Laotian Air Force flies almost daily missions against the jungle road. American and South Vietnamese have been bombing the trail for years. Yet all attempts to stop the flow of Communist supplies and men through Laos have been little more than harassing operations. A total blockade or destruction of the trail is impossible.
  The extent of the system of trails was not known until recently. The length of the paths, trails and roads collectively known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail is greater than 12,500 miles. It runs through a territory that streches from the Chinese frontier to Cambodia. To completely control this great extent of territory would require enormous man power-- whole armies would have to be deployed.
  Paratroopers could seize sections of the trail, destroy them or control them for a while. But, the Communists would quickly carve out a new road a few miles away and continue to operate their lifeline to South Vietnam. In 1966 General Westmoreland said , "There is very little, almost nothing, we can do about the Ho Chi Minh Boulevard."
  About 80% of the supplies for the Communist armies in South Vietnam come down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The percentage was much smaller when the faster and simpler-- but more dangerous sea route was used. Now more than ever, the main transports roll down the jungle paths of the Ho Chi Minh Trail.